Stuck in the Playground?

I know many of us are trying to get our heads around social media. However, I think that to a great extent whatever you do in this space is a reflection of who you are now and how you choose to behave in real life.

Recently I’ve seen a few posts on Twitter either openly maligning people or shouting out unfollows. These have ranged from the curious “Did you press the wrong button?” (yeah, right!) to the outright aggressive or rude. @naturalgrump also wrote an excellent blog recently on his experiences of rudeness – “Some people are just rude”.

Are you Stuck in the Playground?

Those of us who want to behave like adults, probably take the mature & respectful approach. Where there is no relationship forming or we are just not interested in what is being said then we probably unfollow, disconnect, walk away. It’s not personal, just rational. Sometimes we make mistakes but we try to learn, develop and improve.

On the other hand, if you think social media is about being king of the playground then the mature approach won’t be attractive will it? You’ll probably want to accumulate the most connections or followers; shout out as loudly as you can so that only you can be heard; and even pick on those who don’t follow you. You’re still stuck in the playground, desperately trying to be king of the castle. Feels like a lonely place to me…

Find your meaning

The word social comes from the latin socius, generally meaning sharing, associated, allied, partner, comrade, associate, ally. This is how I aspire to engage – in life and with social media. Abuse, rudeness and playground antics will never feature.